New Incubator

[AfricanBallPython]

has anyone built an incubator out of melamine before?

Thinking about creating a cabinet with wooden frame and glass door.

Four shelves will hold the egg boxes with space back and front for air circulated by two fans.

heating will be provided by heating pads and any empty shelves will get water bottles for temperature stability.

I have the CompuCombo so I can get a mist generator if I want. I dont know if the damp vermiculite will provide enough moisture to increase the humidity or not.

What you think

[EDDY]

This one guy I know very well has been breeding Corns for many years using a incubator similiar to what you want to do.

But he only use a wooden cabinet with heat wire running at the back where he puts the tubs on. He opens the tubs everyday and if the vermuculite is dry he pours some water on the vermuculite.

It will most probably work put the wood must be sealed well otherwise the moisture is going to swell up the wood.

Just keep in mind he only use this incubator for Cornsnake and Grey Ratsnake eggs.

[Bushviper]

I assume that when you say melamine that you are refering to melamine covered chipboard? If so the incubator will probably last one season before falling apart.

If you want to build it with wood use marine ply and seal it long before you actually use it to incubate eggs.

[Loslappie]

Lockes, I think your best bet would be to get an old refridgerator, and then convert it to your requirements, it makes a bit better sense as it wont rot/rust, and you can stack the eggs on the shelves etc. I know of some peeps that does it, and it works for them.

[Bushbaby]

I have a nice wooden incubator, which was built for bird eggs. It works for cornsnake eggs, but it doesnt hold humidity very well. If you want I'll try get some pics of it to give you some ideas. It also uses a light which is possibly why the humidity is a problem.

[neko]

The whole swelling thing is a major problem. The fridge idea is nice, but to get a carcass of an old one is a nightmare.

I've succesfully used a cooler box. Stuck a IR light in the box, hooked it up to a thermostat, and filled the bottom half with water. It holds 4 ice cream containers with eggs comfortably. Should something go wrong, you lose only some eggs, and not everything. Sure, the extra thermostats set you back a few pennies, but at the end it's worth it.

[Q Ball]

Pinkie's idea sounds briliant. You can buy polistyrene coollers that the guys pack the fish in for cheap cheap and convert it to an incubator.

[AfricanBallPython]

If you silicone seal the joints will it swell?

What does everyone use for their incubators?

[Bushbaby]

Silicone will only last that long and humidity will seap through eventually. All our cages have been sealed with silicone, and after a while of just keeping snakes in them they have started to swell.

I have 2 incubators (which I don't use lol) One is a glass tank with a smaller tank inside. This works very well and the previous owner had successfully hatched Burmese Python eggs in it. I then have a wooden chick incubator (as previously mentioned).

What I have been using to incubate my cornsnake eggs was a glass cage, one I use for my snakes. I didn't have too many hassles, except for humidity, but then you just need to mist the vermiculite around the eggs slightly.

[Thageet]

Yes Lockes, that’s the secret – I have done it before and it works well; currently using small “add-ins” in the top of my tropical cages (also made from melamine chip) and it saves you the hassle of building a dedicated incubator. I clean the corners with alcohol before sealing.

[Gary]

I have used a normal melamine cage for years without a problem. I use the 5 lt ice cream tubs filled about a third of the way with damp vermiculite, this keeps the humidity at 100%. I then used a 100 Watt lamp for heat and thermostat to control the temp. My corns eggs normally hatch at 68 days.

[wickets]

You can also use one of the big plastic boxes that are obtainable in any supermarket, with some holes drilled. For heating and humidity, use an aquarium heater in an upright flower vase, inside the box. Just stand your egg containers on bricks, as the water will collect at the bottom. Has worked well for me.

[EDDY]

My very first incubator was a polistyrene box where fish was transported in. I took it put a cat liiter tray which fitted perfectly in the box. Then I took a fishtank heater put it in the tray with a airstone which was connected to one of my brothers fishtank pumps. I put 2 batches of cornsnake eggs and 1 batch of gulfhammock eggs in it on a little shelve on the tray. The eggs were doing very good for 30 days or so. Then something happend the heater broke and I cooked the eggs at 60'C.

The next year I got an old fridge from one of my friends mom. I took it stuck 2 heaterpads on the insides left and right side. Put a cat litter tray with a fishtank heater on the bottom. The heaterpads and the fishtank heater are all connected to a cheap anulogue thermostat. I succesfully hatched 3 batches of cornsnake eggs in there and theres a batch of beardie eggs in there at the moment, they still looks perfect. I still need to put a shelve in, at the moment I am using the little step thing thats in the fridge to put the boxes on.

[gbrown]

How about hot spots developing in the incubator?

I was thinking about what fans to use for a problem like that when I turned on my computer I'm not too sure about the electrics of it but a computer cpu fan raided from an old computer preferably linked with a good resistor, might be a good way to get air circulating? Low vibration reasonably quiet and good airflow????

Dunno?

GB

[froot]

I may be wrong but I think CPU fans have 3 wires. 2 are the power and 1 is control. You connect the 2 power wires to 12 volts (once again I think, if not then 5 volts). The 3rd wire you can control through a small 15k ohm variable resister and with this you can vary the speed. In the computer I'm almost sure it is used as a feedback from a temp senseor on the CPU and the speed varies according to temp.
Basically it's worth looking into.

Pure speculation here.